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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23097043">Caught At Last</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeeTeeDubya14/pseuds/BeeTeeDubya14'>BeeTeeDubya14</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr Prompts [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug, Persona 5, Persona Series</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alya Césaire Bashing, Alya Césaire Redemption, Gen, Phantom Thief!Alya Césaire, Phantom Thief!Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:55:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>933</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23097043</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeeTeeDubya14/pseuds/BeeTeeDubya14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Same anon who asked for the chloe case with the phantom thieves. Perfect. Prompt with Alya discovering the metaverse and is in denial of the lies. Have the Phantom thieves reason with her/ or have her stop denying and acknowledge the truth to awaken her persona”<br/>In which Alya gets a Persona.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Former Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr Prompts [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1655461</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Caught At Last</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alya Cesaire, one of Lila’s biggest supporters, had been quite frustrated recently, what with her boyfriend dumping her, her former best friend cutting ties on very bad terms, and the struggle her blog was now facing after an interview with Ladybug contained a callout of Alya’s so-called “bad journalism.”</p><p>She had been planning to destroy Marinette’s sketchbook (as revenge for copying Lila’s designs as her own) when she came upon the girl and some of her new friends - tourists from Tokyo, Japan who were staying for the rest of summer - heading to the bathroom. </p><p>She waited for Marinette to put her bag down and go to the bathroom when they tapped something on their phones and the world seemed to morph around the teenagers.</p><p>When the weird feelings stopped, they were outside a gaudy theater that seemed to be dedicated to Lila, what with lights in the shape of her face (albeit with an evil grin) out front. The front entrance was packed, so in order to get in, they’d have to find an alternate entrance.</p><p>The tourists -<em>the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, </em> Alya induced - and a weirdly dressed Marinette (clad in red and black with a red ribbon serving as a mask) looked shocked to see Alya here, and they confronted her immediately. </p><p>Everything was explained, but some of it Alya found harder to believe than others. With the magical attacks of Hawkmoth ongoing, a world based on cognition wasn’t too crazy, but this part of it being how Lila saw the world was too much to take in.</p><p>Lila had promised her many good things, told her so many cool stories… was that really all they were?</p><p>Unfortunately, they were taking Lila’s “Treasure” that day, and that apparently meant they - Joker, Skull, Mona (the cat had gone unseen until now), Panther, Fox, Queen, &amp; their newest members Oracle &amp; Chance (Marinette!) - had no time to take her back to the real world until they were done. They told her to stay with them at all times, an order Alya was happy to follow after watching them take out some monsters called “Shadows” in a rather brutal manner. </p><p>As they traversed the place, Alya had things explained to her about what was going on. The Phantom Thieves, it seemed, had sent her a calling card the day before somehow, which put her Palace on high alert but made the Treasure able to be stolen; once the Treasure was stolen, Lila would confess her misdeeds.</p><p>“But how do you know she’s done any bad things worthy of confession?” Alya questioned. </p><p>The cat - Mona, if Alya recalled right - responded, “This is the way she sees the world. Only people who see the world in a really negative &amp; distorted way have a Palace.”</p><p>Alya looked to Marinette - Chance - for confirmation. Marinette - who had looked at her pitifully since they’d entered the Palace’s inner dwellings - nodded. </p><p>The young reporter couldn’t believe it. Was Lila really as bad as Marinette and her friends - Nino, Chloe, and the rest of them - had put her up to be? Was she really lying?</p><p>When they reached the Treasure, they found Lila’s Shadow Self waiting for them. The personification of Lila’s true self - wearing a dress you would see at an awards show and a garishly orange top hat - sneered, before pulling a lever next to the door she was leaning on. </p><p>At first, the Phantom Thieves expected to have the ground opened up from under them, but then the door behind her - where the Treasure was supposedly held - began to creak open. Behind it sat a giant butterfly monster that somewhat reminded Alya of the sentimonster back on Heroes’ Day, except far worse. It held a giant saber in one hand, and a tiny golden tiara was wrapped around its other hand’s pinky finger.</p><p>Mona had mentioned that Lila had a cognition of her they’d fought earlier on. Was this… Hawkmoth’s cognition? Why in the world would Lila have a cognition of Hawkmoth? She wouldn’t, unless… </p><p>“Like it, Alya?” Shadow Lila grinned, her smile - which seemed so cloying and saccharine now to Alya - more like that of the Lila Alya knew.</p><p><em> Or rather, the one you thought you knew, </em> a voice spoke inside Alya. It didn’t sound like her, weirdly enough.</p><p>Shadow Lila shrugged, “Sorry for lying to you, darling… not really. Well, I guess it doesn’t matter either way - now that you know the truth, I’ll have to dispose of you.”</p><p>The grief over losing the friend she’d known was replaced with rage. Because of this girl, Alya had lost everything. Her boyfriend, her best friend, her credibility… Lila had ruined her. It was time to get her vengeance.</p><p><em> That’s more like it, </em> the voice in her head spoke. Suddenly, Alya couldn’t think because of a monster headache gripping her. <em> You’ve held me up for far too long. </em></p><p>
  <em> Surely you aren’t going to keep running from the truth… if you desire to find it, let’s form a contract. </em>
</p><p>In unison with the voice, Alya murmured <em> I am thou, thou art I </em>, but stopped after that. There was something on her face in drastic need of removal. She grabbed the thing - a mask, she vaguely realized… </p><p>
  <em> That which is actually so will not run from you any longer… so long as you will fight for it! </em>
</p><p>… and ripped it off.</p><p>When everything cleared, there was something - no, <em> someone </em> - behind her. She didn’t look back, as she already knew who was behind her.</p><p>“Let’s go…” Alya cried, and the grinning Phantom Thieves - complete with a slightly teary Chance - joined her side, "<em><strong>T</strong></em><em><strong>eumessian</strong>! </em>”</p>
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